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Friday, February 14, 2014

High-5 Friday, Valentine's Day Edition: Favorite Fictional Couples

Valentine's Day--the day for lovers, for chocolate hearts and warm fuzzies, and for readers and authors to choose their favorite couples. Do you like the star-crossed types? Fated mates? Explosive soon-to-be exes? Or is there a dream couple that haven't quite made it together yet?

This week, our "High 5" feature turns to love. Earlier in the week, a Facebook and poll at the Preternatura blog asked readers to weigh in on their favorite fictional couples, along with the authors here at Lady Scribes.

The answers ranged from the classic, as author Jennifer Lohman chose Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy--the couple that launched a whole industry--and several readers picked Gone with the Wind's Rhett and Scarlett, despite their lack of a happy ending. (Speaking of REALLY unhappy endings, Romeo and Juliet got a vote!) Our other author favorites were Jamie and Claire from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, chosen by author Samantha Grace, and my own favorite oh-so-not-a-happy-ending couple, Rachel and Kisten from Kim Harrison's Hollows series. Sniff.

But there were clear winners in the Valentine's Day Couple Wars, and here they are, in ascending order:

#5: Charley and Reyes, from Darynda Jones' Charley Davidson series. The fact that Reyes is literally the son of satan...well, those bad boys are always tempting, aren't they? “How would you like your eggs?" I tried. I really did. But I glanced at his crotch and it came out anyway. "Fertilized?” From "Fifth Grave Past the Light"

#4: Cat and Bones, from Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. Bones is one hot, sexy Aussie vampire; even Cat can't resist his steamy charms. “Kitten, you need to make a decision. Either we stay here and behave or we leave now and I promise you”—his voice dipped lower and the words fell against my lips—“if we leave, I won’t behave.” ― From "Halfway to the Grave"

#3 and #2 were a tie:--Zsadist and Bella, from JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Z is the ultimate wounded hero, broken almost beyond repair, but Bella brings him back, and we're so, so glad. “I… What are you saying, Zsadist?" she stammered, even though she'd heard every word. He glanced back down at the pencil in his hand and then turned to the table. Flipping the spiral notebook to a new page, he bent way over and labored on top of the paper for quite a while. Then he ripped the sheet free. His hand was shaking as he held it out. "It's messy." Bella took the paper. In a child's uneven block letters there were three words: I LOVE YOU Her lips flattened tight as her eyes stung. The handwriting got wavy and then disappeared."Maybe you can't read it," he said in a small voice. "I can do it over."She shook her head. "I can read it just fine. It's… beautiful." "I don't expect anything back. I mean… I know that you don't… feel that for me anymore. But I wanted you to know. It's important that you knew.” From "Lover Awakened"

--Kate and Curran, from Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series.“He put the book down. “As you wish.” He rose and walked past me. I lowered my sword, expecting him to pass, but suddenly he stepped in dangerously close. “Welcome home. I’m glad you made it. There is coffee in the kitchen for you.”My mouth gaped open.He inhaled my scent, bent close, about to kiss me…I just stood there like an idiot.Curran smirked and whispered in my ear instead. “Psych.”And just like that, he was out the door and gone.Oh boy.” --From "Magic Bites"

And the #1 couple, by a pretty wide margin, is....

MERCY THOMPSON and ADAM HAUPTMAN of Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series. Adam is one alpha werewolf male, and Mercy has his number.

He stepped back with exaggerated courtesy. But when I walked past him, he swatted my rump. Hard enough to sting. “You need to be more careful,” he growled. “Keep interfering in my business and you might get hurt.” I said sweetly as I continued to Jesse's room, “The last man who swatted me like that is rotting in his grave.” “I have no doubt about it.” His voice was more satisfied then contrite.” From "Iron Kissed"

And there you have it! Tell us your favorite couple, and I'll choose one commenter to win his or her choice of books featuring one of this week's favorites and announce it in this space next week!

Congratulations to Lindalou for commenting on last week's High-Five Friday feature on favorite comfort readers!

17 comments:

I'm a huge fan of three of the series you mentioned above (because I haven't managed to read any of the others, yet!), and it's really hard to pick a favorite. I'm going to go with Bones and Cat, though.

i will stay with my first pick: Mercy/ Adam i think i will reread teh first one soon after this passage i need my fix^^;; but i loved the passage you picked for kate and curran even if it's not necessarily my favourite

Love all of the above, but haven't really read Charley Davidson except for the first one. I think my overall favorite is a tie between Curran and Kate and Mercy and Adam from this list. I love Jamie and Claire from Outlander the best.

First I have to say that I find it funny that Samantha would choose Jamie and Claire as she was so resistant to reading Outlander at first lol. I'm going to break down my favorite couples in a different way.....Historical Romance wise I have to go with Derek Craven and Sara Fielding from Lisa Kleypas's Dreaming of you, for Paranormal for me it's Acheron and Tory. The list could go on and on but I'll leave it at that.....Of the list above I too would go with Zadist and Bella (although Vishous and Jane are my personal favorites).

That's funny--I also like V best, but I thought he deserved better than a ghost. I like Jane, but I still think he got cheated! Acheron and Tory got quite a few votes, just not quite enough to hit the top five :-)